Greenwich girls track team members, Lia Zavattaro, left, a pole vaulter, and Emily Philippides, a middle distance runner, during practice at the Cardinal Stadium track at Greenwich High School on Thursday.

Greenwich girls track team members, Lia Zavattaro, left, a pole vaulter, and Emily Philippides, a middle distance runner, during practice at the Cardinal Stadium track at Greenwich High School on Thursday.

Greenwich High School girls track team members, Emily Philippides, left, a middle distance runner, and Lia Zavattaro, a pole vaulter, during practice at the Cardinal Stadium track, Greenwich High School, Conn., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017. less

Greenwich High School girls track team members, Emily Philippides, left, a middle distance runner, and Lia Zavattaro, a pole vaulter, during practice at the Cardinal Stadium track, Greenwich High School, Conn., ... more

Greenwich High School track coach Evan Dubin, left, speaks with Greenwich High School girls track team members, Lia Zavattaro, center, a pole vaulter, and Emily Philippides, a middle distance runner, during practice at the Cardinal Stadium track, Greenwich High School, Conn., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017. less

Greenwich High School track coach Evan Dubin, left, speaks with Greenwich High School girls track team members, Lia Zavattaro, center, a pole vaulter, and Emily Philippides, a middle distance runner, during ... more

At left, Greenwich High School freshman Callie Harkins practices the long jump, her event, during girls track practice at the Cardinal Stadium track, Greenwich High School, Conn., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017.

At left, Greenwich High School freshman Callie Harkins practices the long jump, her event, during girls track practice at the Cardinal Stadium track, Greenwich High School, Conn., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017.

The results have been more impressive with each meet the Greenwich High School girls and boys indoor track and field team has competed in so far this season.

And the Cardinals hope to continue such a trend.

The FCIAC Western Division Championships takes place Saturday, followed by the FCIAC Championships next week and the Cardinals know they have the potential to make their mark in each meet — as well as the Class LL and State Open Championships.

“Team-wise, one of our main goals is to win the FCIAC title,” said Greenwich junior Emily Philippides, the top runner on the girls’ team. “We have a lot of the same people we had last year and we gained some strong freshman, so we hope to win or do well in FCIACs and place well in Class LL and the Open.”

Philippides has already produced a season to remember for the Cardinals. She placed second at the Marine Corps Holiday Classic at the Armory in Manhattan in the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 13.29 seconds on December 29 — a time that ranked her second in the nation among girls high school competitors.

Philippides also registered a third-place finish in the 600-meter run (1:34.77) at the New Balance Games — also at the Armory — this past weekend (third in the nation). One of the other many highlights Philippides has provided the squad came at the Ocean Breeze Freedom Games on Staten Island where she crossed the finish line second in the 1,000-meter event (2:52.88, fourth-best time in the nation).

“Emily Philippides is having the greatest season a runner has had in our program history over the past 30 years,” GHS indoor track and field coach Evan Dubin said. “She has God-given ability and she trains incredibly hard every single day. She could just rely on her natural athleticism, but she doesn’t. She is out there training hard every single day.”

Philippides, who placed second at last year’s Class LL Championships in the 600 run (1:37.08), began competing in the 800 and 1,000 meter events this season.

“The 600 was my primary event last year and I wanted to repeat that and do it again,” Philippides said. “But this year, I wanted to see if I could do the longer distance events, so I wanted to try moving up.”

The Cardinals’ star runner has done so successfully, after completing her first season as a member of the school’s cross country team this past fall.

“Doing cross country for the first time and changing the way I train and doing different runs and workouts really changed the way I looked at the longer distance events,” said Philippides, who played field hockey in the fall her freshman and sophomore years, before shifting her focus to running. “It made me like the long distance events and compete in them more.”

In individual events, Philippides qualified for the High School Indoor Nationals (Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, Staten Island, N.Y., March 10-12) in the 400 and 800-meter events.

“There are no 1,000 and 600 events at nationals, so my 1,000 run qualified me for the 800 and my 600 qualified me for the 400,” Philippides said. “I am going to run in the championship division, so I am really looking forward to competing.”

The talented Philippides’ enthusiasm for running stems from her father — a native of Cyprus.

“My dad was a really good runner in the 100, so I would go with him to the track and run,” said Philippides, who aspires to run in college. “He really helps in the shorter distances and he helps push me.”

Junior Lia Zavattaro is the Cardinals’ premier performer in the pole vault. She posted a first-place finish at the AT&T Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational at the Armory in December with a GHS indoor record distance of 10’6. She also set a personal and school-record jump in finishing second at the Rhode Island Classic (11’0).

She took third in the pole vault at last season’s Class LL indoor finals and was the outdoor champion in the event.

“Lia has consistently been reaching 11 feet, she’s done it three times this year and is fourth in the state in the event,” Dubin said. “She is progressing nicely, with all the hard work she has done.”

Freshman Zoe Harris, who had a strong cross country season, has excelled indoors this winter. She qualified for Nationals by crossing the finish line in 1:41.24 in the 600-meter run.

“She proved her ability as a distance runner this past Saturday, qualifying for Nationals,” Dubin said of Harris. “She has the talent to run whatever distance she can.”

The distance medley relay team of Harris, Numme, DeWinter and Philippides ran a 12:39.02 recently at the Yale Classic, setting a school record. In the 4 x 800 relay at the Yale Classic, Kristen Lodato, Harris, DeWinter and Philippides finished first in 9:21.84 — the No. 2 time in the country (qualifying them for Nationals).

“This is the strongest girls team I’ve ever had,” Dubin said.

On the boys side, senior Safir Scott set a meet and school record by winning the high jump at last week’s New Balance Games with a jump of 6’10. His distance ranked him No. 2 in the nation and qualified him for Nationals.

Isaac Floyd, a senior, is Greenwich’s top high jumper, while fellow senior Tyler Farris has excelled in the 55-meter run. Meanwhile, junior George Karakadas has impressed in the 600 and 1,000-meter events.

“We’re at the part of the season where we start keeping team scores and I think we can be very competitive in all these meets,” Dubin said. “This is when we get to see that all the hard work pays off.”